What steps have you taken to Make Them Pay Attention? The twenty-eight percenters, the media bloviators, and the folks who represent us in Washington -- how do we reach them? How do we move the body politic?  Are there novel ways to reach people -- things we can do every day or any day?

Now that the President admits authorizing torture -- in addition to his admitted felonies about eavesdropping on Americans and his warmongering regardless of the opinion of the vast majority of Americans -- how do we change the narrative this summer? How do we make Bush relevant again? 

Scarlet P, The Freeway Blogger, has his own extraordinary method -- one he wishes you'd make ordinary in your own community. He reaches hundreds of thousands of people (maybe a million!) every time he freeway-blogs. He shows you how here. Even better, Scarlet P will join us tonight in the comments to talk about freeway-blogging -- or turnpike- or interstate- or parkway- blogging for you East Coasters. It can be done.

Sometimes it takes more words to make the point, and one needs to write a swell resignation letter, as John Brady Kiessling did in 2003 when he left the State Department as this evil war was getting underway:

We are straining beyond its limits an international system we built with such toil and treasure, a web of laws, treaties, organizations, and shared values that sets limits on our foes far more effectively than it ever constrained America’s ability to defend its interests.

I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my conscience with my ability to represent the current U.S. Administration. I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self-correcting, and hope that in a small way I can contribute from outside to shaping policies that better serve the security and prosperity of the American people and the world we share.

Those of us who aren't in a position from which we can so eloquently resign must make do with smaller measures, but these can be effective nonetheless.

On visits back east to see my mom, I have spent a couple of worthwhile afternoons at suburban DeeCee malls. As I stroll through bookstores, I turn all the wingnut welfare tomes face-in. It's not got the adrenaline rush of freeway blogging, but arranging a bookstore's shelves so no O'Reilly or Coulter or Goldberg peeks out can be a fun way to spend an afternoon. It changes the world of reading for the next browsers, and I've noticed that my rearranged bookscape can last for several days. Other guerrillas, outraged by the display space given to liars, haters, and idiot philosopers, make direct and frequent protests to store managers: Why are you prominently displaying this trash?

My next small project (I start this week) is business cards with "Impeach Bush & Cheney Now! Call 202-225-4965" (I'm sure by now you recognize the Speaker's office number.) I'll put these on windshields and on community bulletin boards; just a fifty-dollar investment for a thousand cards. If only ten percent of those who get a card make a call, I will have generated one hundred more calls to Nancy Pelosi's office. Leave some at the community area of the public library, with the pilates and tax prep flyers, and put one in every eatery's fishbowl promising a free lunch if your card is drawn. Leave one on the folding table at the launderette, and a couple on the deposit-writing tables at the credit union.  Slip a few between CDs at the record store, or between boxes of pasta at the supermarket.  Ask your favorite vendors at the farmers' market if you can put a few on the corner of their tables.  Word gets around, and people start to talk.  Split the cost among five friends; each of you can quickly distribute 200 cards.

Soon you'll have a mini-movement in your community -- "have you seen these?" people will ask one another.  "Yes, I have -- and I called!"  

Engage more of our own folks in the dialogue -- if the major papers and cable gasbags won't talk about what our leaders have done to our country, then we must do it ourselves.

Many fraternal and membership organizations in San Francisco have made their own statement on The War Regime, as has our Board of Supervisors. Have you asked your lodge or homeowners' association to take a stand?  What about your condo board?  Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that our uniquely American quality is our tendency to band together, to organize ourselves for the betterment of our communities.  Has your local elected body made its views known, as Brattleboro did?  George W Bush hasn't set foot in Vermont or San Francisco during his awful reign, probably for very good reason.

Let's knit together a patchwork of shun that reaches from coast to coast!

Shall we organize a black-armband day on the tragic fifth anniversary of Mission Accomplished? It's May First -- coming up fast.

We are the change we're waiting for.  Have you a plan?

{YouTube courtesy of Aboriginal Media}